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Rules of Procedure

• Article 64.4 of the
Rules of Procedure of the IACHR establish: “Should the Commission deem
it appropriate, it may also request the participation of other interested
parties in the hearings on the human rights situation in one or more States,
or on matters of general interest.”

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
announces the schedule of hearings for the
147th Period of Sessions, which will be held from March 7th to 22nd,
2013. The hearings will take place March 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, and 16th.
All hearings will take place in the General Secretariat Building of the
Organization of American States (OAS), 1889 F Street NW, Washington, D.C.

In the hearings requested by the States, civil society will have 15
minutes available to present any information it considers relevant. Those
interested in participating should communicate their interest by e-mail, at
cidhdenuncias@oas.org, before
March 5th, 2013. In the e-mail, they should include the names of the
individuals and/or organizations wishing to attend and specify what hearing
they would like to participate in, along with any other information that
might be of interest to include.

The OAS will transmit all the public hearings live via webcast. The
videos of these hearings will subsequently be posted on the OAS and the
IACHR websites. Those who would prefer to have a high-resolution copy of a
hearing’s video should bring their own flash drive or external drive.
Details about these services can be found in the
Commission's guidelines for
press coverage of public hearings. In addition, all the public hearings
may be heard on the Internet, through audio recordings posted on this page
of the Commission's website. Both the audio recordings and the videos will
be available only in the language used by each participant, even in the
cases when several channels with interpretation with different languages are
available through the webcast service.

In the case of private hearings, no webcast or audio or video recordings
will be available, and no members of the public or the press will be allowed
to enter.

Members of the public who are interested may attend public hearings
without having to register ahead of time. Journalists do not need any
special accreditation. The IACHR does not make minutes or transcripts of the
hearings public.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States
(OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American
Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to
promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative
body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven
independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS
General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or
residence.